WASHINGTON – When Univision began broadcasting a soap opera three years ago about the misadventures of 11-year-old identical twin girls who swapped identities after discovering they had been separated at birth, it passed the episodes off as educational programming for young children.

That decision is expected to cost Univision, the nation's largest Latino network, $24 million in what would be the largest fine the Federal Communications Commission has imposed against any company. The penalty is also expected to send a strong signal to broadcasters that they will be expected to meet their quota of shows that educate and inform children, after years of permissive oversight.

The commission has decided to impose the heavy fine – disclosed by Kevin Martin, the chairman of the commission, in an interview – as a tough rebuke to Univision for claiming to meet its obligations to broadcast educational children's programs by airing the Latino soap opera, “Complices al Rescate” (“Friends to the Rescue”), and other telenovelas.

The penalty is nearly three times higher than the fine of $9 million against Qwest Communications for violating telephone interconnection rules in 2004, and significantly more than the largest indecency penalty of $3.5 million levied against Viacom the same year for remarks by Howard Stern on the radio.

It also represents an unusually aggressive enforcement of the 1996 regulations that interpreted the Children's Television Act. Those regulations, adopted after some broadcasters tried to pass off Saturday morning cartoons as educational programs, imposed more substantive requirements on the networks as they comply with the mandate to broadcast at least three hours a week of programs of intellectual value to young people.

Although some television critics say it is common for stations not to comply, only a handful of complaints have been filed. An even smaller number has resulted in modest penalties of several thousand dollars for stations found to have violated the rules.

Reflecting the views of many policy leaders in Washington who were appointed by President Bush, Martin said he was committed to deregulation “and an environment where companies can be investing and competing and driving innovation.”

But he also said he was not driven simply by ideology, and that there remain important areas where thorough regulation plays a valuable social role.

“I generally think consumers are better served by less regulation, not more,” Martin said in an interview. “But I also think the commission has a key role to play in some areas, such as children's television, and I take those obligations seriously.”

The $24 million fine, along with a plan to air more programming that would comply with the rules, are part of a consent decree that Univision has tentatively agreed to that would resolve complaints by viewers. It covers violations at 24 Univision stations over 116 weeks from 2004 to early last year.

Lawyers representing Univision before the commission declined to comment about the case.

The fine was applauded by some Democrats now in control of Congress who have long been dissatisfied with the agency for failing to press broadcasters to provide higher-quality programming for children.

“As the prime House author of the Children's Television Act, I am pleased the commission is pursuing serious and vigorous enforcement of violations,” said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., who heads the House subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet. “This is a particularly egregious case, and the level of the proposed fine reflects it. Rather than giving kids programming that is educationally nourishing, Univision elected to give them the Spanish-language equivalent of a soap opera.”